138. (p.

135-136) Maslow's Needs Hierarchy Theory was dismissed by experts more than
threedecades ago, yet Maslow's writing has had a lasting and valuable effect by
advocating a moreholistic and humanistic approach to human motivation. Discuss these
two approaches andpoint out how they were applied in Maslow's Needs Hierarchy
Theory.

Holistic. This is the view that needs and drives should be studied together, not
piecemeal,because their effects are influenced by other needs and drives, not
independently. Maslow's Needs Hierarchy Theory takes a holistic approach by
condensing the long list of needs into a hierarchy of five basic categories, and describes
the effect of these needs on motivation in terms of each need's relationship to other
needs (the lowest level need is strongest; people move to a higher need when the lower
one is fulfilled, etc.).

Humanistic. The humanistic approach refers to the notion that motivation is influenced
at least partly by human thought and social influences rather than just instinct. This
contrasts with early motivation research which mainly investigated instinctive forms of
motivation. This humanistic approach is apparent in needs hierarchy theory because it
introduced growth needs rather than just deficiency needs. Growth needs (self-
actualization) involves thinking rather than instinctive wants. Social status also likely has
a social rather than purely instinctive influence.

Compare and contrast ERG Theory with McClelland's Theory of Learned Needs.
The main similarity between these two theories is that they are both needs-based
theories of motivation. In other words, both theories try to explain why people have
certain needs at various times. The two theories also refer to needs that are somewhat
similar (i.e.affiliation/relatedness, achievement, growth), although they take different
perspectives regarding the foundation of these needs.
ERG Theory and McClelland's Theory of Learned Needs differ in several ways. ERG
Theory deals with primary needs — needs that are instinctive. In contrast, McClelland's
Theory refers to secondary needs — needs that are learned and reinforced rather than
instinctive. Another difference is that ERG Theory proposes a needs hierarchy — that
some needs have more importance than others at certain points in time. McClelland's
Theory does not propose a needs hierarchy. A third difference is that ERG Theory

140. (p. 139

) Your organization wants to hire and develop a group of people for executive
positions in a fast-growing high-technology firm. The company's selection tests are able
to identify each applicant's current level of need for achievement, power (both types)
and affiliation. Moreover, the company has special training programs to further develop
these fasttrack executives on these learned needs. Identify which learned needs the
company should use to select these applicants and should further develop in the
training programs.

Need for socialized power. Effective executives have a high need for socialized power
because this motivates them to acquire power to benefit the organization. Therefore,
applicants should be selected if they have high levels of this need, and they should
receive further training to develop this socialized power need.
Need for personalized power. Effective executives have low levels of personalized
power because this motivates them to acquire power for personal gain. Thus, applicants
with high levels of this need should be screened out. Moreover, these people should not
receive any training to develop this need.
Need for affiliation. Effective executives have a relatively low need for affiliation so that
their choices and actions are not biased by a personal need for approval. Thus,
applicants with high levels of this need should be screened out. Moreover, these people
should not receive any training to develop this need.
Need for achievement. Effective executives have a moderate (neither too high nor too
low) need for achievement. If too high, executives have difficulty delegating work and
involving employees. If too low, executives are not motivated enough to work towards
challenging goals. Thus, applicants should be selected if they have moderate levels of
this need. Training probably should not be provided, unless some of these people
currently have low need for achievement.
141. (p. 139) A large manufacturer of Internet hardware wants to hire an executive who will
help develop the firm's marketing division. This executive must be a 'team player' by
working with other executives. The successful candidate will also delegate more
responsibility to the marketing professionals, but is responsible for making tough
decisions regarding allocation of limited budgets. Describe the level of need for
achievement, affiliation, and socialized and personalized power that the ideal candidate
would have for this position. Your answer should also briefly define these terms.

Need for achievement (nAch). This is a learned need that causes people to want to
accomplish reasonably challenging goals through their own efforts. The textbook
indicates that people with a high nAch prefer working alone rather than in teams. The
position in this question calls for someone who is a team player, so the person should
have somewhat lower nAch because they must delegate work and build support
through involvement. This does not mean that nAch should be low. Rather, it should not
be extremely high (as found in entrepreneurs).

Some students might note that high nAch people may perform well in large companies
wherethey are given considerable independence — as though they are running their
own business.However, this clearly indicates that the marketing executive is working
with the executive team.

Need for affiliation (nAff). This is a learned need that causes people to seek approval
fromothers, conform to their wishes and expectations, and avoid conflict and
confrontation. Thetextbook indicates that decision makers (including executives) should
have a relatively low level of nAff because people with high nAff are less effective at
allocating scarce resources and making other decisions that potentially generate
conflict. The ideal candidate for this position should have a relatively low nAff so that his
or her choices and actions are not biasedby a personal need for approval.

Need for power (nPow). This is a learned need that causes people to want to exercise
control over others and are concerned about maintaining their leadership position.
Those with a high personalized need for power enjoy their power for its own sake and
use it to advance their career and other personal interests. Those with a high socialized
need for power want power as a means to help others, such as improving society or
increasing organizational effectiveness. The ideal executive should have a low
personalized need for power and a high socialized need for power so that power is
directed towards fulfillment of organizational
objectives.
AACSB: 1, 3, 6
BT: Application
Difficulty: Difficult
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142. (p. 140) Briefly describe the Four-drive Theory and explain how drives influence
employee motivation.
The four drives are:
Drive to acquire: This is the drive to seek, take, control, and retain objects and
personal experiences.
Drive to bond: This is the drive to form social relationships and develop mutual caring
commitments with others.
Drive to learn: This is the drive to satisfy our curiosity, to know and understand
ourselves and the environment around us.
Drive to defend: This drive creates a fight-or-flight response in the face of personal
danger.

Every bit of information we receive is quickly and non-consciously tagged with

emotional markers that subsequently shape our logical analysis of the situation.
According to Four-drive Theory, these four drives determine which emotions are tagged
to incoming stimuli. Fourdrive Theory states that competing drives (i.e. conflicting
emotions) demand our attention, which causes us to choose a course of action based
on our social norms, past experience, and personal values. In other words, our
conscious analysis of competing demands from the four drives generates needs that
energize us to act in ways acceptable to society and our own moral compass.

143. (p. 141) Four-drive Theory offers a contemporary view of how individual drives
influence behavior. The first part of the theory explains how drives generate emotions.
Explain how these emotions are translated into employee behavior. Your answer should
identify the three factors that people consider in this translation process.

answer this question, students need to state that when emotions are raised to a level of
consciousness (which often occurs when emotions compete with each other). When
aware of this internal conflict, people rely on a built-in skill set to resolve these
dilemmas. These skills take into account social norms, past experience, and personal
values. The result is goal directed decision and effort that fits within the constraints of
cultural and moral expectations. In other words, the conscious analysis of competing
demands from the four drives generates needs that energize people to act in ways
acceptable to society and our own moral compass.
144. (p. 141-142) Four-drive Theory is one of the few theories of motivation that recognizes
the central role of human emotions in the motivation process. Explain how Four-drive
Theory applies emotions to employee motivation.
Four-drive Theory recognizes that we perceive information from the external
environment both rationally and emotionally. The emotional centre, which operates
faster than the rational centre, relies on the innate drive to code the relevance and
strength of the perceived information. Situations that violate or support these drives
receive emotional markers (fear, excitement, anger, etc.). The emotionally coded
information is transmitted to the rational centre of the brain where it is evaluated in the
context of memory and competencies. The rational centre then makes a conscious
choice that motivates behavior.

The four drives speed up the decision-making process because the emotional markers
created by these drives highlight the alternative actions to avoid and the alternatives to
favor.Emotional markers also become the conscious sources of human motivation.

Chapter 05 - Foundations of Employee Motivation

145. (p. 143-144) Your organization wants to improve employee motivation. Employees
already have strong P-to-O expectancies and the outcome valences are quite favorable
for strong performance, but they seem to have a low E-to-P expectancy. Identify three
distinct types of strategies that would potentially increase employee motivation by
improving the E-to-P expectancy.

The E-to-P expectancy may be improved generally by increasing the individual's

abilities and self-perceptions of ability, and by providing favorable situational
contingencies. There are three basic strategies for improving the individual's ability to
perform the job.
First, the organization should select people with the required skills and knowledge to
perform the job.
Second, the organization should provide sufficient training to enable the person to do
the job proficiently.
Third, for those who lack the skills or knowledge to perform the whole job, managers
might temporarily reduce the job requirements. Specifically, aspects of the job that
are beyond the individual's qualifications may be temporarily assigned to other people.

To improve the person's perceived ability to perform the job, managers could show
employees how their skills can accomplish the task. They could provide evidence and
examples that similar employees have been successful in this job. Managers should
provide encouragement and support to employees who lack self-confidence. They
should provide feedback to reinforce the belief that the employees can perform the job.
Finally, the E-to-P expectancy tends to increase as employees are placed in work
environments with favorable situational contingencies. In other words, they should be
given sufficient time, materials and other resources to accomplish the job and have
obstacles removed where possible.
146. (p. 145) You want production employees at your company to be more motivated to
complete their assignments more efficiently. They are confident that they can perform
their
jobs more efficiently and the rewards you give employees (pay checks, paid time off,
etc.) are
valued by these people. Identify the one element of Expectancy Theory that requires
improvement and identify three possible actions that would increase employee
motivation through this element.
Students need to answer this question by first identifying the element of Expectancy
Theory that requires change. The incident says that employees know they can perform
their jobs more efficiently, so they already have a high E-to-P expectancy. Moreover,
employees value the rewards, suggesting that the outcomes have a high valence. This
leaves the likelihood that employees have a low P-to-O expectancy. That is, they
perceive a low probability that performing the job more efficiently will lead to desired
outcomes.
There are several ways to increase the P-to-O expectancy. The company needs to
measure employee performance accurately (in this case, measuring number of units
produced per hour or some other measure of work efficiency). The company needs to
tell employees that certain desirable rewards will result from increased work efficiency.
P-to-O expectancy will also increase if the company shows examples of situations
where employees receive the desired rewards after they have performed their jobs
more efficiently. Moreover, when employees receive their rewards, they should be told
how these rewards resulted from past incidents of work efficiency.

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Chapter 05 - Foundations of Employee Motivation
147. (p. 146-147) You supervise two-dozen sales representatives covering every region of
the country from your office at company headquarters. Describe a feedback strategy
that might improve the performance of these employees with respect to increasing sales
to new clients.
the sales manager must construct a feedback mechanism that takes into account the
degree to which the feedback is specific, frequent, timely, credible and relevant.
Specific feedback. Feedback is more useful when it includes specific information
rather than subjective and general phrases. Thus, the sales manager should provide
feedback that describes specific information (e.g. sales volume) for a specific area and
time frame.
Sufficiently frequent feedback. Most organizations should provide more frequent
feedback to employees. The best strategy is to have feedback continuously available
and to let employees decide when they want to see it. Thus, the sales manager should
make sales information available whenever sales employees want this feedback.
Timely feedback. Feedback should be available as soon as possible so that
employees see a clear association between their behavior and its consequences. Thus,
the sales manager should arrange to have sales information prepared as quickly as
possible.
Credible feedback. Feedback has value only when the employee accepts its content.
Employees are more likely to accept feedback from trustworthy and credible sources.
Thus,feedback should come from reputable sources, such as valid computer printouts
and from executives who are respected by sales employees.
Relevant feedback. Feedback is most effective when it relates to the individual's
behavior rather than broader departmental or organizational activities. Thus, the sales
manager should ensure that each employee's feedback relates to sales goals for that
person and that the information relates to events under the employee's control.

Chapter 05 - Foundations of Employee Motivation

148. (p. 153) Jack Smith and Sam Clemens are neighbors who work as purchasing
managers in different companies in the petrochemical industry. During one neighborly
discussion, Jack learned that Sam's salary was nearly 15% higher than his even though
their job duties were similar. Other than this difference, both received similar benefits
and seemed to enjoy their jobs and colleagues. Jack was upset about Sam's higher
salary although he hid his emotions from Sam (after all, it wasn't Sam's fault that they
received different salary levels). Jack was frustrated not only because Sam received a
significantly higher salary, but also because Jack was certain that he worked longer
hours and was more productive than Sam. According to Equity Theory research, what
will Jack probably do to reduce his upset feelings?

The textbook describes six possible consequences of inequity, but some are more likely
to occur than others. One likely consequence is that Jack will try to increase his
outcomes, such as by approaching his superiors for a pay increase or making greater
use of company facilities and resources. Alternatively, Jack might try to reduce his
inputs, such as by working fewer hours and with less motivation towards maintaining
high performance. If neither of these actions sufficiently reduces his feelings of inequity,
Jack might begin looking for a purchasing management job in another company or
consider moving into higher-paying jobs within his current organization. Jack's feelings
of inequity might be reduced by changing his perceptions, but this is more difficult given
the clarity of salary information. It is also unlikely that Jack would push Sam to work
harder or try to reduce his salary. Finally, it may be difficult for Jack to change his
comparison other since Sam is a neighbor.
149. (p. 150) A large project engineering company assigns engineering, purchasing,
marketing and support staff to client-based projects lasting anywhere from four months
to one year. The project staff report to both the project leader and the manager of their
functional specialization. For example, a marketing employee in Project Z would receive
day-to-day instructions from the Project Z manager, but would receive career
development guidance from the company's director of marketing. The functional
manager also places employees in future projects. In the past, project staff were
evaluated by the employee's project leader at the time of the annual performance
evaluation. However, some employees complained that they had just started the
project, so the project leader didn't know their performance. The company wants to
introduce a 360-degree feedback process to overcome this issue and other problems
with the performance evaluation system. Describe the specific characteristics of a 360-
degree feedback process for project staff at this company and identify two problems that
the company should know about 360-degree feedback systems.
.
The 360-degree process for project staff can take a few forms, but the following
description is probably the most common one. Once or possibly twice each year, the
company would collect feedback about specific employees from a representative group
of people around that employee. In this setting, the current and former project leaders
over the past year would contribute feedback, as would a sample of employees in the
current and past projects over the past year. These projects are client-based, so the
company might ask clients for feedback, where appropriate. It isn't clear whether these
staffers have subordinates, but, if so, lower level employees would also submit
feedback about the employee.

One issue in this process is who would collect and process this multisource feedback
and discuss the results with the employee. While there is no absolutely correct answer
here, probably the best choice would be the employee's functional manager (e.g. the
director of marketing for marketing employees). Functional heads are logical choices
because they are responsible for the employee's career development and oversee the
employee's project placement. Thus, the various sources of feedback would submit their
comments and ratings to the employee's functional manager. The functional manager
would organize this information and discuss it with the employee.

Costs. 360-degree feedback can be expensive and time-consuming because several

people take time to review several other employees.
150. (p. 154) Why is it difficult to maintain feelings of equity among employees?
Maintaining feelings of equity is not an easy task because employees have different
opinions regarding which inputs should be rewarded (e.g. seniority versus performance)
and which outcomes are more valuable than others. We must also remember that the
comparison other is not easy to identify and may, in fact, represent a distorted
interpretation of reality. Lastly,people have different levels of equity sensitivity, so they
react differently to inequitable situations.